THE traditional image of Chinese students as shy bookworms doesn’t apply any more. Today, many local college students are engaging in extracurricular activities, stepping out of their comfort zones and challenging themselves.

Shen Jia, an advisor at Shanghai’s Tongji University, says every summer there are around 5,000 Tongji students who participate in social practice projects, internships and volunteer activities.

“I’ve noticed in recent years that students are more self-motivated and passionate about doing social work. They are more willing to endure hardships,” says Shen, who oversees students’ practice projects.

Every year, Tongji students start preparing for projects around April. The idea of social practice is to encourage students to solve real-life problems with knowledge they’ve gained in classes.

Many project topics are related to daily life. For example, one of them is about improving the map of pathways for the blind on Metro Line 10. The project started three years ago and has developed into a large-scale research project. Now Tongji University is helping students implement their new map system with Shanghai Shentong Metro Co Ltd.

“There are many good projects that turn into bigger projects for longer research. Teachers and professors at Tongji will also try their best to help students if they find a project to be helpful and interesting,” says Shen.

Xu Xianjun, a teacher from Shanghai University of Electric Power, says this year there are more than 300 students going to underdeveloped areas of China to promote technological knowledge and provide education support. It held the school’s first “open day” to introduce a range of volunteer activities and projects, including the “Love Summer Daycare Class,” which attracted more than 100 student participants.

“Younger students, like freshmen and sophomores, are more involved in practice projects, volunteer activities and social work,” says Xu.

Helping Yangpu breathe easier

This summer, one group of six students from the School of Environmental Engineering at Tongji University is working on an indoor air-quality (IAQ) project in Yangpu District. They provided free air-quality checks for local residents, and also hosted talks on indoor air pollution.

“I wanted to go deeper into (this topic) by not just offering the examinations, but also gathering data for research and sharing indoor air-quality facts,” says the group’s leader, Wang Jinghua. “People are more concerned about outdoor air quality, but IAQ actually impacts health more since people spend more time in air-conditioned rooms.”

Wang’s group has already delivered about 30 free IAQ checks. But getting good data is a time-consuming process, Wang explains, with the air quality in a single room sometimes taking two hours to assess. In many cases, this also means working for hours in scorching hot rooms without air conditioning.

“After an examination we can immediately show the homeowner the numbers we got, and whether they exceed the standard ranges set by the Chinese government. After the examination we will have a more detailed report with the possible sources of pollutants and common solutions to them.

“We are very happy to see that our project is benefiting residents, since the IAQ exams on the market are so expensive that many households wouldn’t be able to afford them.

“For our next task, we will gather the most common IAQ questions we were asked during the project and publish brochures on them,” says Wang.

Wang’s mother, surnamed Zhang, is also impressed with her daughter’s work; even though it has kept them apart for about half of the summer holiday.

“Compared with interning at a company, doing a social practice project is more about planning and organizing things by yourself,” says Zhang. “I think my daughter really improves her critical thinking and practical abilities.”

Youngsters helping youngsters

Wang Liping from Shanghai University of Electric Power is working as a volunteer at Hongkou District No. 4 Central Elementary School as part of the “Love Summer Daycare Class.”

The program offers inexpensive day-care service to elementary school students who don’t have anyone to look after them during the summer vacation. Every class has two college volunteers to assist a teacher, help arrange lunch for the children and many other tasks.

The classrooms are filled with handicrafts and paper-cuts. The main purpose of the program is to keep children safe and enrich their time away from school.

Wang says she often feels heavy responsibility in this work. Every summer holiday, China sees many tragic accidents involving youngsters being left alone at home by working parents. “It’s my job to keep them safe and company, and bring them joy,” she says.

Asked if it was difficult to communicate with the children, Wang says, “I used to think that kids don’t know anything and that you almost needed to trick them into listening to you with sweet words and candies. But in fact I realize they have already grown their own personalities, and as long as you treat them like adults, children are actually pretty easy to communicate with.”

A normal volunteer work duration is one week, but Wang was already in her fourth week during the interview. She was hired to work for the program through an internship. Now she is mainly responsible for communications between volunteers and training sessions for new student recruits.

In the past, Wang worked part-time at a bakery and a restaurant. She also did casual assignments like picking people up from the airport and tutoring.

“I work mainly to cover my living expenses, but I also like learning from these jobs to expand my comfort zone and gain more experiences,” she says.

Teaching in Kenya

Wei Yaying from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics is currently in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is volunteering as a teacher with the non-profit organization AIESEC. Wei applied for this teaching opportunity because she has always wanted to go to Africa as a volunteer.

Every day it takes Wei about two hours to reach her school by minibus. At first she was shocked by the terrible conditions at the area where she teaches.

“I’ve been here for three weeks and at first it was very hard for me to get accustomed here. There is a very dirty drain right next to the school. Sometimes the smell is very strong, even inside the classroom. The conditions at the school where I teach are the worst of all I’ve visited. It’s hard to imagine the situation here,” Wei says, who feels like she’s settling in.

Wei teaches three subjects: English, math and science. Every day it takes more than two hours to prepare for the next day’s classes.

“Science takes the longest time since there are many terms in English that I didn’t learn in school, so I need to look up each of them. In English I need to be more careful about the correctness of grammars, while math is relatively easier.”

Wei has grown attached to the children she teaches. “There are not many children in each class, but I remember all their names,” she says. “Last week I played a movie in English class and I was standing because there wasn’t enough chairs. But a girl went out and came back with one for me!”

Sometimes Wei teaches the students English songs after class, and one day they asked her to record a video of them singing the song she taught them.

Wei is very thankful that her parents support her volunteering in such a far away place. “When my relatives heard that I was going to Africa to volunteer, they were very worried about my safety, so they tried to persuade me not to go. It was my parents that convinced them that I would be careful and responsible. I’m very thankful for their understanding and support.”

Now Wei is working on reporting the situation at the African school to AIESEC. With it, the group hopes to collect crowd-funding to provide lunch and books to the children and fix the noxious drain pipe.